A judge for the Provincial Court of Sucumbios in Ecuador ordered US oil company Chevron to pay $8.6 billion in damages, finding that Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron in 2001, polluted large areas of the country’s rain forest. Chevron vowed to fight the ruling , calling it “illegitimate and unenforceable” and “the product of [...]

Hungarian prosecutors on Monday charged long-time Nazi suspect, Sandor Kepiro, with war crimes committed during the 1942 Novi Sad massacre in Serbia. Kepiro was convicted both in 1944 and 1946 and sentenced to 10 years for involvement in the raids. He was, however, released, and promptly fled to Argentina. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) , [...]

The Iranian government will set up a special court to try media and culture crimes, state news agency IRNA reported Sunday. The judiciary has set up a special prosecutors office to handle alleged offenses committed in media and cultural platforms. Both the court and office will operate under the supervision of Tehran’s chief prosecutor. The [...]

A Pakistani court on Monday indicted police guard Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, accused of assassinating liberal politician and governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province Salman Taseer for opposing the nation’s blasphemy law . Qadri reportedly told the court that he did not murder anyone intentionally but had taught a lesson to an apostate. The next hearing [...]

Five Japanese citizens filed suit in the Tokyo District Court on Monday challenging the constitutionality of a civil law that forces married couples to choose a single surname. The plaintiffs claim that Article 750 of the Japan Civil Code, requiring a husband and wife to assume the same surname when married, violates Articles 13 and [...]

The Hawaii House of Representatives on Friday voted 31-19 to pass a bill that would recognize same-sex civil unions . The bill will now advance to the state Senate for a vote before reaching the desk of Hawaii’s new democratic governor, Neil Abercrombie , who has previously voiced his support for civil unions. If successful, [...]

Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said Monday the government will end the 19-year-old state of emergency laws amidst growing protests in Algeria and the ongoing protests in Tunisia and Egypt. Medelci told French radio station Europe 1 that the state of emergency will end in a few days but dismissed concerns that Algeria could end [...]

Russian Judge Viktor Danilkin, who convicted former Russian oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky of money-laundering and embezzlement in December, did not write the verdict and was coerced into reading it , Danilkin’s assistant said Monday. Natalya Vasilyeva made the allegations in an interview she gave to Gazeta.ru website and the TV channel Dozjd. According to Vasilyeva, [...]

The trial of Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir began Monday in the District Court of South Jakarta. Bashir is charged with operating a terrorist training camp in the mountains of the northwestern province of Aceh to prepare Islamic radicals to carry out attacks in the capital of Jakarta. Prosecutors allege that this group was [...]

An arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf was issued Saturday by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in connection with the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto . The court determined Musharraf had not cooperated during the investigation of Bhutto’s death, and investigators have alleged that Musharraf did not provide adequate security for Bhutto when [...]